Northern Highway (song)

Last updated
"Northern Highway"
Martin Courtney - Northern Highway.jpg
Single by Martin Courtney
from the album Many Moons
ReleasedSeptember 2, 2015
Genre
Length4:01
Label Domino
Songwriter(s) Martin Courtney
Producer(s) Jarvis Taveniere
Martin Courtney singles chronology
"Vestiges"
(2015)
"Northern Highway"
(2015)
"Airport Bar"
(2015)

"Northern Highway" is a song by American musician Martin Courtney, the frontman of the American indie rock band Real Estate, from his debut solo album, Many Moons . The song was released on September 2, 2015 along with the announcement of Many Moons and an accompanying music video. [1]

Martin Courtney

Martin Courtney IV is an American musician and the frontman of the American indie rock band Real Estate.

Indie rock is a genre of rock music that originated in the United States and United Kingdom in the 1970s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock. As grunge and punk revival bands in the US and Britpop bands in the UK broke into the mainstream in the 1990s, it came to be used to identify those acts that retained an outsider and underground perspective. In the 2000s, as a result of changes in the music industry and the growing importance of the Internet, some indie rock acts began to enjoy commercial success, leading to questions about its meaningfulness as a term.

Real Estate (band) American indie rock band

Real Estate is an American rock band from Ridgewood, New Jersey, United States, formed in 2009. The band is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, and currently consists of Martin Courtney, IV, Alex Bleeker, Jackson Pollis (drums), Matt Kallman (keyboards) and Julian Lynch (guitar).

Contents

Track listing

No.TitleLength
1."Northern Highway"4:01

Reception

"Northern Highway" received positive reviews from contemporary music critics. In his review of Many Moons, Marc Hogan of Pitchfork Media stated that "Northern Highway" "cruises along, suitably upbeat, as it balances existential questions ("Do you feel just like a stranger?") with the narrator's avowal that he could never retire to a place without seasons—all via a chiming arrangement befitting the Left Banke." [2]

Music video

Still picture from the "Northern Highway" video. Martin Courtney - Northern Highway - Music Video.png
Still picture from the "Northern Highway" video.

A video for "Northern Highway" was released on September 2, 2015. [3] The video was directed by Rob Hatch-Miller and Puloma Basu of Production Company Productions in upstate New York. [4] Zumic described the video with, "The no frills video sees Martin playing electric and acoustic guitars under highways, on railroad tracks, and in front of nondescript buildings, with occasional landscape shots thrown in." [5]

Upstate New York region of the U.S. state of New York north of the core of the New York metropolitan area

Upstate New York is the portion of the American state of New York lying north of the New York metropolitan area. The Upstate region includes most of the state of New York, excluding New York City, the Lower Hudson Valley, and Long Island, although the precise boundary is debated. Major cities in Upstate New York include Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and Syracuse.

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References

  1. Monroe, Jazz (2 September 2015). "Real Estate's Martin Courtney Announces Solo Album Many Moons, Shares "Northern Highway" Video". Pitchfork Media . Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  2. Hogan, Marc (22 October 2015). "Martin Courtney: "Many Moons"". Pitchfork Media . Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  3. Rettig, James (2 September 2015). "Martin Courtney – "Northern Highway" Video". Stereogum . Retrieved 15 December 2015.
  4. Production Company Productions
  5. “Northern Highway” – Martin Courtney [YouTube Official Music Video]